Tag: Jesus

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 36:8-39:30-31

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“All the skilled artisans among those doing the work made the tabernacle with ten curtains. Bezalel made them of finely spun linen, as well as blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, with a design of cherubim worked into them. . . .They made a medallion, the holy diadem, out of pure gold and wrote on it an inscription like the engraving on a seal: Holy to the Lord. They attached a cord of blue yarn to it in order to mount it on the turban, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.” (CSB – Read chapter 36; chapter 37; chapter 38; chapter 39)

I’ve talked before recently about the fact that my church is in a building process. We’ve been here for a long time. In fact, they have been slowly walking down this path for twice as long as I’ve even been here. Just before Covid hit we at long last thought we were at the point we could start building. But then we couldn’t because of Covid. And for a while we were pretty discouraged. All that work on developing plans and we weren’t going to get to actually build it. And yet, by God’s grace, here we are again: ready to build. Developing plans to build without actually building is pointless. Israel had plans to build. It was finally time to bring it into reality. Let’s talk about how that process unfolded.

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Digging in Deeper: Matthew 11:25-30

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“At that time, Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure. All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal him. Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke up on you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Well, we made it. This past Tuesday was election day in the U.S., and from all reports, it came off without a hitch. That doesn’t mean everyone was happy with the results, but it nonetheless came and went, and the sun still rose on Wednesday morning. As far as I have heard, there weren’t any violent protests of the results. In fact, perhaps the biggest surprise (beyond the results themselves) was that we fairly well knew the outcome by Wednesday morning. I was fully mentally prepared for chaos of some sort and a season of national uncertainty that lasted through at least Friday. But that didn’t happen. After all the turmoil of the last two presidential elections, this one felt normal. Everyone voted, we had results by morning, and now the country is preparing to move forward. Today, in light of the election, I want to talk about something else entirely. Well, that’s not totally true. We’ll still have the election in mind, but let’s take a moment today to remember there are things bigger than politics.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 34:21

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“You are to labor six days but you must rest on the seventh day; you must even rest during plowing and harvesting times.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The other day, some folks in my church were having a conversation before Bible study about the wonder of modern conveniences and the changes they have brought to our lives. Many of the things we consider among the most basic conveniences were introduced as ways to automate mundane tasks and give us more time for leisure. Instead, not knowing what to do with all our extra time, we filled it with either mindless banalities or else even more work. Rest and genuine, fulfilling recreation have seemed to escape us. And yet, one of the commands God came back to again and again with Israel was a call to rest regularly. And in their rest, they were to learn to trust. Let’s talk again about Sabbath and realizing there’s more to the world than just ourselves.

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Letting Go

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If we want to grow God’s kingdom, walking a path of sacrificial living is going to be the key. But sacrifice by itself isn’t enough. There’s another step to take. In today’s continuation of our teaching series, Together, we are talking about what comes next once we have decided to walk this path. Helping us understand it will be two different stories, one of which ranks among the hardest in the Old Testament. Let’s dive in and see why letting go gives God a lot of room to accomplish His good work.

Letting Go

Some of the most incredible military victories over the course of human history have been won because one side simply refused to surrender and fought with courage and valor until their opposition was finally overcome. Even battles that have been lost have been turned into rallying cries for future soldiers to inspire them on to incredible feats of bravery. Consider the battle cry, “Remember the Alamo!” When the citizens of Texas were fighting Mexico for independence which ultimately resulted in their becoming a part of these United States, they were inspired by that cry to keep on pressing to defeat their foes until their threat was eliminated once and for all. But the fact is that Texas lost the battle for the Alamo that created that cry. It was their very refusal to surrender, though, that transformed them from being merely the losing side to immortalized heroes in the minds of their fellow soldiers and citizens. 

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 34:5-7

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“The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name, ‘the Lord.’ The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: The Lord – the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the gifts that is often given to expectant parents is a book of names. It’s basically a dictionary for names. There are hundreds of pages of names with their approximate meaning. They range from mundane to bizarre. The weight of naming a new human can be a heavy one. Today, many parents try to be creative with their name selections. While I can appreciate the desire to not pick the same name everybody else is choosing, leaving a child with a name that will be forever misspelled or mispronounced isn’t exactly a gift. Used to be, names were chosen because they were traditional in a family or because of the character they were understood to convey. When God came down to reveal Himself to Moses as the latter requested, this revelation primarily involved proclaiming His name…which was all about His character. Let’s talk about it.

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